Adampur a Congress stronghold, says ex-Haryana CM Hooda

Chandigarh, Oct 3

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday said the Adampur assembly seat, which will go for bypolls on November 3, has been a Congress stronghold and its victory is certain.

"The BJP-JJP has no such achievement to showcase in Adampur bypoll. Every section is unhappy with policies and actions of the government. While children are worried about the closure of schools, elderly are worried about deduction of old-age pension. The youth are facing the brunt of unemployment and farmers are facing rising costs and decreasing income," he said.

Hooda said due to lack of government procurement, once again the farmers are forced to sell their crops below the minimum support price (MSP) declared by the government.

"Paddy with MSP of Rs 2,060 and bajra with MSP of Rs 2,350 are being sold at Rs 1,600-1,800. The farmers are incurring a loss of Rs 300 to 600 per quintal. On the other hand, they have suffered massive loss due to heavy rains and the state government has not yet carried out a Girdawari till now.

"In Hisar district alone, 41,000 farmers filed forms to claim crop damage, private insurance companies cancelled 29,000 forms," he said.

Responding to a question, Hooda said that the entire tenure of the government has been full of failures. Haryana was number one in per capita income, per capita investment, employment generation and giving fair rate of crop to farmers till 2014.

"The BJP-JJP government has made Haryana number one in unemployment, crime, riots, corruption, drug addiction, inflation and misery in eight years," he said.

The Leader of Opposition said the BJP-JJP coalition government has been formed in Haryana to serve personal interests of the leaders by betraying the public.

The byelection was necessitated due to the resignation of Kuldeep Bishnoi, a former Congress MLA who joined the BJP.

While the BJP is likely to field Bishnoi, former ministers Jai Prakash and Sampat Singh, both Jat leaders, are the frontrunners for the Congress ticket.